Pivot - Trump’s executive order on TikTok & WeChat, Friend of Pivot Jennifer Palmieri about women in politics, and guest host Andrew Ross Sorkin on a billionaire tax
Episode Date: August 11, 2020Kara is joined by New York Times columnist, founder of Deal Book and CNBC Sqwuakbox Host Andrew Ross Sorkin to talk about about Trump's new executive orders to ban Chinese social media apps. They also... discuss Bernie Sanders' proposed new tax legislation that would implement a one time 60-percent tax on billionaires who made money during the pandemic. Then we are joined by Friend of Pivot Jennifer Palmieri, author of the new book She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man's World, to discuss women in politics and Biden's expected VP pick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hi, everyone.
This is Pivot from New York Magazine
and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
I'm Kara Swisher and Scott's out this week again because he takes an extended vacation for his whole life.
And we have famous Canadian Andrew Ross Sorkin of the great hair in his host seat this week.
Andrew is also a New York Times columnist, founder of Dealbook and a CNBC Squawk Box anchor.
He's all the things Scott wish he was.
Welcome, Andrew, to the show.
Thank you for having me. But actually, a New Yorker, as we know, he just thinks I'm a Canadian
because I don't know. Why does he think that? What is that from?
I think he thinks I'm even-keeled, but I'm going to show you, Cara, that I'm not that even-keeled
at all. I'm excited because, by the way, Canadians not letting us into their country, by the way.
Canadians are getting tough. When the Canadians are mean to you, you know things are bad here
in this country. The wall has gone up on the North.
The wall, the North wall, and it's going to be, you know, winter is coming. Anyway,
there's so much to talk about. We're going to, you know, talk a lot about Wall Street and Bernie
Sanders and stuff that's sort of in your zone and billionaires and what we should do about it. But I
first like very quickly, before we get to the big stories, to talk about this op-ed that Dara
Khosrowshahi wrote in the New York Times, which I saw last night, actually saying what
companies like his should be acquired by law to provide gig workers a benefits fund, but
did not think they should be classified as full-time workers.
He was bringing up a thing that Uber always brings up, but others have brought it up,
is the reclassification of workers.
And right now, in the midst of this pandemic, I'd love to get your thoughts on that op-ed and where you think
this is going, where workers' designation... I have such mixed views about this. And I don't
know where you are these days. And I'd love to hear your view, too. My sense is that we need
to do something for these workers and that they are workers. And some of them should be categorized
as employees. Not all, but some.
And I always thought that there should actually be
a look back provision,
which is to say to look at the end of a month
or an end of a week and say,
okay, did you work 35 hours?
Did you work 40 hours?
And by the way, it's important to figure out
how to define those 35 or 40 hours or whatever number,
because it shouldn't be just the number of hours
that you were actually on the meter,
meaning that somebody was in the back of the car and you were getting paid.
It should include some percentage, I imagine, of time when you're just on the road.
And I think that once you get to that 35, 40-hour period,
you probably really should be classified as an employee and get those type of benefits.
But I'm also sympathetic to
the other side of the argument, which is the independent contractor argument and the flexibility
argument. And so if you're only going to work 10 hours a week or you're going to work 15 hours a
week and you're going to do it in sort of a not necessarily the most consistent way, I'm not
necessarily sure you should get all of the protections. But by the way,
there probably should be some fun to protect you because here we are in the midst of COVID-19 and
this pandemic and and you can't work. And so what do you do? So that's that's why I said and that's
not to be the Canadian without a crazy sense. But I think we should do something. The question is
sort of how much. And I don't know if you thought Darrell went far enough in the notes.
Well, I think he's sort of caught, right?
I think a lot of these companies have been built on the backs of workers, period, and their labor.
And when, like I always say, when you pay $4 for an Uber, which you don't anymore, by the way, prices have gone up rather significantly, you're not that the person suffering is the person in the front seat, you know, no matter how you slice it.
And so or VCs are funding the whole thing. And so I think the idea, and I had a discussion of all
people with Gavin Newsom many years ago when he had just become governor about, or maybe he was
lieutenant governor, about reclassifying workers in general. There's a new way to think about
employees. And I think with this COVID-19 thing, you've really got to start thinking of like,
who is a worker and what rights should they have? Just like with President Trump saying he's going to protect, well, he's doing, it's Obamacare,
it's called Obamacare, but protect pre-existing conditions or this or that, is there's a new way
of thinking about workers that has to be changed completely, almost shattering the old way we think
of it. Okay. So here's the flip side. And I'm just curious what you think, the economics of this.
So Uber as a company, I mean, one of the things is we all look at Uber and we say, look at this huge valuation.
But it's a money-losing pit at the moment.
And it's still a money-losing pit.
I mean, this is a business that's now been around for a while.
It's no longer just a startup.
And I say that is what happens to the business model if and when you really do add all of these benefits, which we all want for employees.
Right, but that's the cost.
It's the cost to society.
Someone's paying somewhere, whether it's an emergency room or a taxpayer.
My question is if the cost is so high, what happens to the business?
Does the business go away?
And is that better or worse,
ultimately, for society? I think that's a real question. By the way, you could say to me,
it's better for society that Uber doesn't exist. And then there's other people who might say,
it's better for society. I just think it has to be the business it is. It's the size it's supposed to be. Like he was talking about that in the piece that, well, if we didn't do it,
we had to pay people more, we'd be smaller. I'm like, uh-huh, that's how we are. That's how, you know, if I wanted to like
fund my things forever, I could hire lots of people and make, and give myself stock options.
It's just sort of a mentality. I like the piece and I think he is one of the more thoughtful
people, even though he gets much attacked by, uh, by, you know, driver union groups and things like
that. Um, he is sort of paying the price for Travis Kalanick's reign, essentially, what he put into place.
Oh, no, I think he's a very thoughtful guy.
And I actually enjoyed the piece.
I thought it was actually a very well articulated argument.
The piece of it, though, and I do give credit to Uber for this and to Lyft and others,
which is we have maybe through the subsidization of Silicon Valley,
maybe through the subsidization of Silicon Valley, effectively democratized to some degree mobility in a way that didn't exist before, right? So you can get a car now out in Queens to get into
Manhattan in a way that just didn't exist. You couldn't even find a taxi before. And so there's
also social benefits to that. And so trying to figure out what the balance is between the social
benefit of being
able to democratize mobility and get cars to places that would have otherwise not been there.
Now, yes, you're doing it on the back, if you will, of the employee. The question is,
what job would have that employee had if they weren't doing that? And this is the ultimate
problem. And I wish I had an answer. You just had an answer. I think that when I know, when I talk to drivers, and of course that's not, I hate anecdotal
people talking to cab driver stories, but all of them do like the freedom.
I have not had someone say, but they also do complain.
It's a really interesting problem.
I think they don't even, they don't want to be in the office.
They don't want to be in a different place.
And yet they understand.
I mean, I think that benefits are important.
So I think it'll be an interesting question of where the government's role is. Worth noting, though, and I don't know
if you feel this way as well, Uber, a driver in New York City for an Uber or even a Washington,
D.C. where you are or Los Angeles to some degree, they are the equivalent of employees because they
are, most of those people are working 35, 40 hours, 50, 60,
70 hours a week. Those are employees and they should get everything. Yeah. You go out to other
towns and cities in this country and it's a different it's a different situation. I got
picked up in the back of a pickup truck. That happened to me in Omaha about a year ago. And
I said, how often you drive? This is well, you know, some weeks I do five hours,
some weeks I go out on Saturday nights and get a little bit of money. And I'm not sure on that,
on that individual, how I'd handle that. Well, I think it's the idea of the floating worker.
And I think I hate calling them, you know, the gig workers. I hate that word. I'd like to think
of a new designation for an employee that's very different than, and it should, they should float with their benefits. I mean, that's the idea.
But that was the point of Obamacare. But I remember sitting with President Obama,
probably the last year of his presidency, having a long talk about this and how he was looking out
into the future a decade out. And he said, look, I think the world's going to be gig workers. It's
just going to be, there's going to be all sorts of gig workers and that's why we have to do this now.
Yep, yep.
And it has to be flexible and portable.
And that's what, if that's the future of the economy.
Now, if that's not the future of the economy,
then we can have a whole different debate about it.
Yeah, it is the future of economy.
Anyway, we're going to get to big stories.
We're going to talk about President T
and that's not TikTok.
It's actually what President Trump
is calling himself today on Twitter.
I don't know if you're going to use that term for him.
It's a dangerous way to call it.
Mr. T.
There's only one Mr. T, my friend.
He's on the A-team.
He is fantastic.
I love that guy.
Anyway, we're going to do big stories.
Late last week, President Trump said he would be restricting the use of the Chinese-based app WeChat and TikTok in the United States in one of the most problematic executive orders I've ever seen.
He said that after 45 days, transactions would be prohibited on the two apps, but it's still unclear exactly what that means.
And I think it was purposely left that way.
Now TikTok is expected to sue the Trump administration.
They are arguing that President Trump's action is unconstitutional because it did not give the company a chance to respond. WeChat doesn't know what to do. Its stock went down.
The whole thing was extraordinarily confusing for a second. Game companies were worried. Apple's
been worried. Snap was worried. It sent everybody into a state of confusion. And meanwhile, a lot of
the coverage was that TikTok's not really the biggest problem there is. There's many others.
Most intelligence officials think that. So what do you think's going to happen here? And then,
of course, Twitter jumped into the possible transactions, which is another wrinkle.
Let's go through all the wrinkles. I am not long a Twitter TikTok transaction. I think that's
kind of a joke. I think there's a lot of headlines that
have been coming out in the past 72 hours that are being ginned up by bankers and all sorts of other
people behind the scenes who are desperate to try to-
Why not? Why not say Silver Lake is in for a billion or whatever?
So I think the end result is a Microsoft transaction.
And I think the end result is a Microsoft transaction simply because
it is complicated to physically move over all of this data from China.
And unless you're going to let Google do it or Amazon do it in this day and age of big tech and antitrust, that's not happening.
I think the only American company that's probably in a position really to pull this off in any quick amount of time is Microsoft.
Now, we can debate whether Microsoft is a good buyer.
They have a mixed track record of buying assets.
And the consumer space, they've done great with, you know,
Minecraft and Xbox.
Not so great, obviously, with things like Nokia and, well, Bing and others.
You don't remember Mungo Park. You don't remember that, but I do. I! You don't remember Mungo Park.
You don't remember that, but I do.
I don't think I remember Mungo Park.
That was part of the MSN network.
What do we think, by the way?
Was the LinkedIn transaction ultimately a success?
I'm not sure.
Yeah, I think it's fine in there.
I don't know.
You know, I think they let it run separately.
Same Skype.
People don't think so.
They think it's not been innovative.
They haven't been innovating in there.
LinkedIn, I think, is one of its kind.
So who's to know whether it's been innovating, right?
So it's not really like there's an enormous amount of competitors to LinkedIn.
So I see it as a Microsoft deal.
Let's walk through it.
So why does it have to be quick?
Do you think this, talk about this executive order.
Well, two things.
My understanding is it could take something on the order of 12 months to actually move the data.
So quick is in the eye of the beholder.
So even if it's even
and that's a short amount of time. So why? Because the longer the longer you believe this goes on,
if you if you believe the TikTok, see, I don't believe the TikTok. I don't think the Chinese
government right this second is somehow abusing its position with TikTok. Nor, by the way, do I
believe that the Chinese government is abusing its position with Huawei right this moment? I don't think that's the issue. I think
the issue is the potential for abuse in the future at a moment's notice. That's the question.
And so when do you try to put the wall down? But you will, you know, we're going to have a
splinter net. That's what this is. And I don't know what to do about it. And I also worry about the implications for U.S. businesses.
If you're a Tim Cook who's got so much business.
Yeah, talk about that.
If you're Tim Cook and you have a huge amount of manufacturing and sales in China, what happens?
Now, he may very well be protected because, you know, they have hundreds of thousands of employees that are working at Foxconn that would be out of business if somehow, you know, President Xi said, Cook, you're out of here.
I think that would be hard for them.
Same thing with a Starbucks.
But, you know, the Chinese are willing often to take pain for a much longer period than our ADD society.
So that's what I worry about is sort of what the long-term implications.
By the way, this WeChat thing, I don't know if people appreciate this, is going to be a big problem for Apple too.
Yep, absolutely.
Because right now, if you're trying to do business with a Chinese company and you're an American, you still use WeChat.
You use WeChat.
You use WeChat.
And people, Chinese Americans here talking to relatives back home, not just that.
Lots and lots and lots.
So you take WeChat off the Apple platform,
and that's going to be, I mean,
I don't know what the numbers are.
You can do the math.
There's math to be done,
but I think it makes it a much less appealing product to buy if you're Chinese
or planning to do business with folks in China.
Also, it's more complex.
Apple is the obvious one to point to,
but the global supply chain there
of everything that gets made,
everything is really problematic.
Like, everyone has a link in China, even though Google doesn't operate there, Facebook doesn't operate there.
There's so many U.S. companies.
It's interesting the Chinese have not reacted.
Instead, what they've been doing is doing horrible things, like arresting Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong.
You know, meanwhile, they're actually doing some substantive things to be problematic for this country.
And so and here we are arguing about this video dance service essentially right now.
Do you where would President Trump be better to focus?
Because it seems like he has got kind of as usual.
Well, the question is whether he could turn this around on the Chinese and say, hey, look, we're going to shut TikTok down unless you want to open up your market.
Right. That's not going to happen. Facebook and Google on the same terms that we do. That's not going to happen. And once you declare that something's a national security threat, it's sort of hard to play chess with that
piece, I think. Right. Oh, you can't. People say this to me a lot on Twitter, the idea that,
you know, oh, we can just open if they open up, I'm like, where are the United States with a free and open internet? And they're China with
an autocratic one. Why do you imagine they would do that? Like, they're not going to suddenly become
a democracy. They're not going to say, that's not what they, that's not how they play. And so
it's impossible to even demand that of them because it's never going to happen. Because
it's not like we're telling, you know, a giraffe to be a lion or whatever.
because it's not like we're telling a giraffe to be a lion or whatever.
But then is it magical thinking to think that there's a better way?
No, no.
But because one of the things you're noticing among Republicans and Democrats is that almost everybody is moving more hawkish, right?
Everyone's going to out-hawk each other on China.
And the question I have is whether there is some middle ground.
Is there a way to thread this needle that we're not?
Well, here's the problem.
China is really our rival, but we also have to get along with them because they're the other power.
And meanwhile, they're going around the globe putting Chinese technology everywhere.
And so you talk about a splinter net, it's going to be a Chinese internet and then us, like with less and less and less power in doing it this way.
Because I think we overestimate the power we have right now in the future.
And one of the things that's problematic with, say, going to Microsoft and making these
ridiculous time demands is that, look, if I thought he was smart, I'd say he's trying
to keep on the pressure.
I just think he just wakes up and thinks of a crazy thing and then tweets it.
I don't think there's any strategery here, especially with Peter Navarro.
I think Peter Navarro pops into his office, says something crazy, he goes with that.
And then Steve Mnuchin comes in and tries to clean it up while he's trying to do, you know, a COVID deal on this side, which is more important.
But I think one of the things that should have happened is this company should have gone public and then created an independent company with all kinds of investors that operated in this country.
That's what they should have done. That would be the American way to me, not to be like forced married to Microsoft.
But mind you, the next shoe to drop that we're hearing about is the possibility that these
companies won't be allowed to IPO here at all as a form of punishment. Well, if that happens,
year at all as a form of punishment. Well, if that happens, then it completely undoes all of the issues you just talked about. If you could get the investor base to be here, if you could have
some more employees here, then it changes the dynamic. But we're going to a full wall.
Right, which is crazy. That means how does it change the American business landscape,
which has been a stable place to do business and been an open place to do business?
To me, I think we'll lose. If we're in a wall war with China, guess who's going to win? Guess who has the great one? It's China, not us. And we're not good at it either.
Long term, look, I've always thought that long term, and I hate to say this about America,
I think long term, the Chinese, I don't want them to overtake us, but I think it's very possible.
The question I'd ask is if you're an entrepreneur today, if you're a graduate from Stanford University and you're
thinking to go to Silicon Valley or Austin or wherever in the United States, where would you
go now? Is the United States not the place you'd go? Would you get on a plane to India? Would you
fly to Beijing? Where would you go? Yeah.
Now, well, it should be here.
It should be here.
But we're becoming more and more.
And we're just not good at this.
This is not the reason the internet is so strong is because it's a free and open internet.
And we could do it in a safe way and create a new company that's also a counterpoint to Facebook.
That's great.
It's not a counterpoint to Facebook inside of Microsoft.
It's just another thing Microsoft owns that could be a competitor, but also could get pulled into the giant
Microsoft, which is still big, even though they're not under antitrust scrutiny right now.
Okay. If we're having this conversation in five years from now, TikTok is owned by Microsoft
in this hypothetical. Are we talking about it in the same breath with Facebook?
If they spin it off and let it run as an independent, because the reason, someone asked me this
morning, why is TechTech so successful?
The people running it are doing a great job at product and it doesn't, let them do it
and get the security in there.
And I think if they brought it in and spun it off, that would be the best thing for it.
I think independent companies are always the best way to go for these companies.
Well, let me ask you one, do you think that they can break up the,
if you believe that Facebook is a monopoly, do you think that they represent a genuine competitor
that could actually upend this whole situation? Yes. Yes. Because I think it's a wonderful
product. Do you use it, Andrew? We're going to move on to our next story, take a quick break.
Start using it. Get yourself a burner phone like Kara Swisher.
But you got to tell me, should I be doing – here's the real thing though.
Should I be doing dances, lip syncs?
No.
No, don't dance.
Andrew, that would be the end of your career.
What happens if I did lip syncs to Kara Swisher podcast like Sarah Cooper but I was Kara Swisher?
That is an excellent idea.
I could do it with Galloway.
Nobody will watch.
I could Galloway.
How about Galloway? Yeah, you're right. You say gangsta and stuff.
I was thinking maybe Dave Portnoy. You should be on TikTok.
Dave Portnoy with his, you know, he's got those, you know, stocks going.
You will be on TikTok as Andrew Ross Sorkin. I think it's a great platform. I think it's a,
and I think it's a real shame what's happening here.
Hold on. I'll do a little ad here. What is Kara Swisher doing on TikTok right now?
I am thinking about it right now. I don't know yet.
You're not on yet.
I'm waiting. Not yet, but I think about it yet. You're not on yet. I'm waiting.
Not yet, but I think about it every single day for an hour.
I look at it.
I study it. What about the demo?
So part of me thinks that we all want to capture the younger demo.
No, that's not it.
Okay, you think that the older demo is coming?
I think everyone's coming.
Yep, it's a great platform.
This is my prediction.
Anyway, we're going to go to a quick break and come back to talk about a new proposed tax on the ultra wealthy. And we'll be joined after that by
a friend of Pivot, author and political advisor, Jennifer Palmieri.
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is a registered trademark of the Bose Corporation. Okay, Andrew, we're back and you haven't said one offensive thing, nothing sexist, nothing problematic. It's really a problem if you
don't move in here into Scott's territory. I know, but do you guys have HR people or how
does that work? Me, I'm the HR person, Andrew. That's what it is. That's essentially what it is.
He actually, he gets right to the line
is his problem, is what happens here.
But anyway, please don't be offensive.
Be Andrew just the way you are.
I'm just me.
I'm trying to not be the former McDonald's CEO.
That's what I'm trying not to be.
Oh my God, Jesus, criminies.
Is that the story?
It's always about emails and text.
It's always about sexting.
Sexting.
It's always about,
and for those who don't know this,
the ex-McDonald's CEO,
they're trying to claw back money that he got
because it looks like he's sleeping
with everyone at McDonald's, right?
Supposedly.
That's a sign of fries.
Supposedly he gets fired,
says it was only one person.
That he didn't have a sexual relationship with.
They didn't look into it.
There was a see no evil, hear no evil,
please leave with $40 million
and we won't talk to you again and we won't talk about this. Someone shows up about a month ago and says,
hey, there was a lot more going on here. They now start looking through his emails,
why they didn't do that a year ago. And now they want all the money back.
But I love that he was using his corporate email to send dirty pictures to his private email. I was
like, what? Keep your emails. Don't cross your email streams. You know,
what's going on there? It was crazy that it was so easy to find. And of course, everybody knew
about it, as is the case. You keep a separate phone for that, right? Oh, stop it. I know. I
do not send dirty. I have never sent dirty things. I can't even fathom. I can say. I don't know how
they would find one because there isn't one. But it's amazing that these people are so careless
with technology, whether it's Slack or email or text. And it just continues to amaze me
that these people use their corporate phones for personal peccadillos. And also, you know,
the work thing, of course, is, you know, that he lied about. It's just amazing.
You think he'll lose his money?
I think he will lose the money. The question is whether he's sold.
You're still arguing with Les Moonves, right?
Yeah, but this is not like a bank when they claw back money.
It's restricted shares, so they have never accessed them.
What happens if this guy sold the shares, went to Vegas and lost it all?
Yeah.
Or bought a house or who knows what?
You know, it's McDonald's fault for not doing an investigation, honestly, and the shareholders will suffer.
100%.
There'll be lawsuits not just against him, but against the company and the board. 100%. Okay. But speaking of rich people
doing bad things, Senator Bernie Sanders is introducing legislation that would tax the
richest Americans who made outsized money during the course of the pandemic, which is pretty much
tech CEOs, tech founders and CEOs. The legislation is called the Make Billionaires Pay Act. I love
the name of it and could propose a one-time 60% wealth tax on billionaires.
Oh, my God, it's a lot of money.
It'd be used to cover health care expenses of the uninsured for a year.
The proposed bill would cost Jeff Bezos $42.8 billion, Mark Zuckerberg $22.8 billion, and
Elon Musk $27.5 billion.
Then Elon Musk needled Sanders about the proposal over Twitter.
So this is your area, Andrew.
Tell me what's going on with the billionaire attacks and how you feel about them.
Oh, goodness.
Because this is Elizabeth Warren, part two, right?
I don't know what the right number is, but I will say this, and I don't know if you feel
the same way.
I think that this pandemic has been a war, a genuine war.
And there have been people who have gotten on the front lines, whether they are doctors and that's their contribution to our country or whether they are the people at the cash out at the register at Walmart.
And I feel like I now thank them in a way that I never did before.
And frankly, the shame that I didn't.
that I never did before.
And frankly, the shame that I didn't.
I think that those of us who have been blessed enough both to be able to stay at home largely during this pandemic
and blessed enough with some sense of means,
and I'm no billionaire,
but I think that there've been people
who've made a lot of money
and even those who have not made as billions.
I think there's a contribution
that needs to be made to this country.
I think in the same way that those cash be made to this country. I think in
the same way that those cashiers made a contribution to this country during the pandemic,
I should make a contribution. And I'm a minnow on a relative basis to Bezos. So yeah, I think
that people should give up something. So what do you think of this act? How do you do that?
I don't know what the right number is. I also don't know if it should really be, I mean, look,
I also wonder, should it really be a I mean, look, I also wonder,
should it really be a one-time thing? I'm not necessarily in favor of a wealth tax,
but I'm definitely in favor of closing all of these loopholes around, you know, when you die.
It's crazy to me that we don't do anything there. I think the idea that people can give to charity,
frankly, and I love charity. I wanted to encourage philanthropy. But if you want to sell
your shares, pay capital gains on them, and then give it to whoever you want to, go with God and
do it. But the idea that you just are giving your shares away and they've never been taxed,
that seems crazy to me because most people don't have that opportunity. It means effectively that
every taxpayer is subsidizing everybody else's charity, the billionaire's charity.
That's right. That is correct. You sound like a non-gear guy.
Well, no, I don't know what they're writing, but I don't.
What do you think of this act?
I don't think it's going anywhere fast.
I think it's all for show.
I think it's going to have us talking about it.
It's going to get people a little bit crazy.
And maybe, maybe the ultimate journey we're on
is that we will close some of these other loopholes eventually.
Right.
But do I think that there's going to be a massive tax, a one-time?
Maybe there will be a one-time tax, but not at probably the levels that-
They have made a lot of money in this pandemic, right?
Not only have they made a lot of money, I'll make even a further argument.
A number of them, including Amazon and Walmart, have made a lot of money because they've been
advantaged by government policy,
which is to say every small business was told you can't open. And so Walmart and Amazon were
able to own everything. And look, they stepped up. I give them an enormous amount of credit
because I was able to live in my home without having to leave. And there were employees, again,
people who went to the front line and did the work and
they paid them more. And I give them credit for that as well. But still, you look at the vast
amount of money that's been made during this period. And it would be nice if some of that
was contributed back into the quote unquote system. So but how do you do that? I mean,
why this is I mean, it's been a running joke, this sort of attack on billionaires. I remember,
you know, the VC, Tom, Tom Perkins, who said it was like Kristallnacht, which was incredible to make that horrible
comparison. But, you know, this sort of attack on billionaires never seems to go anywhere. But the
numbers that these, the wealth that these people have gotten during this pandemic, when many,
most people are out of work, is really like millions and millions of people are out of work,
is really striking. That's what I'm saying. I think a one-time tax, I don't think I'd, by the way, focus it just
on billionaires though. I think I'd focus it on anybody who's made a, you know, a lot of money
during this period. Well, who would push this? If Biden wins, would he push that through? By the
way, it'll be January, which means possibly some of the pandemic will be gone. Americans are
forgetful people and they love rich people.
So what do you, is there any political will here?
I actually think, well, it depends.
Do you think Elizabeth Warren is either going to be the VP?
I don't think so.
But do you think that she's going to be the Treasury Secretary or some other role?
Maybe.
Maybe she'll have some influence in this that we don't know about.
I think it's possible there will be a discussion.
Also, tell me where the stock market is, by the way, come Christmas this year. If you think it stays where it is now, sure, we should actually tax it.
It's also very possible to me that things turn south in a terrible way.
So speaking of that, I want to get your area of expertise. I'm going to try to channel Joe Kernan. I think I won't. I won't get you angry. No one likes Andrew Day. But what if Joe Biden wins and the stock market does this?
What happens to IPOs?
Where is the market?
You're saying when you just said you think it's going to tank, don't you think that means we need President Trump there to bring it back for us?
Because there's never been a better stock market than under him.
This is not true, but I'm going to say it because I'm Joe Cardin.
But what do you imagine the stock market's going to do?
Because it's been separate from the economy. It's been going different ways from the economy.
So I look at the stock market right now and I say, it's a binary event. The professional
investors are basically saying, I want to be in the market because I'm betting on a vaccine.
And if I'm not in the market when the vaccine is announced, I've lost the game. Now, I'm not
100% convinced that the vaccine alone is going to
fix things because I worry that if there's really not a vaccine until, and I imagine we're still
March, but we could be, by the way, we're here in August. It could be August before
everybody has the true access and opportunity to get that vaccine. And then tell me how many
people either aren't working or have been pushed out of their homes.
Permanently.
Permanently.
And permanent job changes.
We just have this big unemployment number
and it's better than it was,
but it's gonna slow.
And you're, by the way,
seeing big companies start to take advantage of this moment.
They're starting to realize
that they can do more with less.
Yes.
And that's not necessarily, I mean, that's not necessarily good news. It's terrible
news. And those will be really lost jobs, not just furloughed jobs or temporary lifts.
So I think it's going to be a tough slog. The only distinction I make in all this is that
it is true that the bigger have gotten bigger and the bigger will get bigger. And so there's
some argument to be made that the Amazons and Facebooks and Netflix and all of those folks are still going to.
Will lead a roaring market.
What about IPOs?
I want to finish up on this.
Like there are a couple of the IPOs have done rather well because there's nothing else out there.
That's my guess, right?
There's nothing else to put money into.
There's the supply and demand issue.
It's why you're starting to see all these SPACs, these blank check deals, which, by the way, historically were considered crazy.
And people thought were almost.
Explain a SPAC.
People thought this was criminal.
So a SPAC is what's called a special purpose acquisition corporation.
And the idea is you basically buy into a blank check company.
You give somebody money.
They then have 18 to 24 months, depending on the timing,
to go buy another company. They often take a huge piece of whatever they buy. In the old days,
they used to say that this was a compensation mechanism masquerading as an investment vehicle.
And they have become so popular. You've seen Chamath
Palihapitiya do it with Virgin Galactic. You've seen it with a number of others. Nikola went
public this way. And by the way, part of it, it's a transparency dodge because a company says,
I don't know if I can make it in a typical IPO because then I have to run around and prove to
everybody I have to show all this stuff. You ultimately do have to show everything, but the timing of it's different. You can get
something. It's not a true IPO. It's not a true IPO. So where are the true IPOs? I think they're
waiting on the sidelines because they don't know what to do. I mean, look, you know, we all thought
this was supposed to be the year of the Airbnb IPO. Well, the Airbnb IPO can't happen because
you tell me what's going to happen to the Airbnb.
I think Brian Chesky is a very smart and thoughtful guy, but boy, has he gotten stuck
in the middle of this thing. But I think there's a lot of that. I think there's a lot of that.
So what else is out there? How do you look at the IPO market?
I think it's going to be generally slow going in part because people are worried about the underlying
the underlying businesses. But but meanwhile, I think these SPACs, funnily enough, are taking off
because they think that they can go up and start to, you know, acquire lots of lots of things and
do it relatively quickly. So we'll see. Well, is there any is there anything, you know,
Washington can do about this? Or is it going to be purely a situation with investors willing to step out again after this becomes better?
I think it's investors stepping out.
And I also think it's companies waiting for the right price.
I mean, that's the other thing.
You know, who wants to go into a market that they're not sure about?
Now, by the way, some of these will work.
Some of these IPOs will work.
Is there any that you're looking at?
I'm trying to think if there's anything like on our rate.
There's nothing.
There's not like a massive list that you're usually sitting on.
Kodak.
Kodak.
Kodak, another map.
Jesus.
Not all things get a ballpark.
Oh, Jesus.
You know, investigative reporters are going to have the time of their life looking into
what the government did in terms of funding all these COVID money frauds. Like there's
one after the next every day. It's, it's really going to be some, it's going to go on and on.
I think it's going to be that. I think it's going to be the vaccine makers. I mean, it's funny how
much we all want to bet on these vaccines and we want to, we want to root for these healthcare
companies, but you look at all the stock sales that have been, have been made by the insiders
during this period.
Crazy.
Crazy town.
Yeah.
Yep, absolutely.
All right.
Speaking of politics, Andrew, we have a friend of Pivot on the line who knows a lot about politics.
Jennifer Palmieri is the author of a new book she proclaims, Our Declaration of Independence from a Man's World. She was also the Director of Communications for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign and the White
House Director of Communications during the Obama administration. Welcome to Pivot, Jennifer.
Very happy to be with you. Thank you.
So just so you know, Jennifer's in a car because she lost power wherever she is. She's in New
Jersey. They don't have power in New Jersey. So she's broadcasting from a car on her phone and with her laptop. So thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Super happy to be
with you. So there's a lot of things we're going to talk about, but let's quickly, I want to get
to the vice presidential candidate because you know we're going to ask about that, which is soon
to be happening. But your new book sets up a blueprint for how women should step out of the
patriarchal bounds of their work and life. And, you know, that's been an ongoing struggle. I have a patriarchal person here with
Andrew Ross Sorkin, obviously. But what do you, what do you, talk a little bit about these ideas,
what prompted you to write this? Because this is, you know, this has been an issue. You were in the
Hillary Clinton campaign just this week. There was a controversy around a Maureen Dowd column
around that, like being noticed. What do you, Talk a little bit about why you decided to do this.
Yeah, so the Clinton campaign sort of opened my eyes, right, about how much it matters that we don't have role models of women in a national leadership role.
And, you know, I have never thought of myself as a woman in a man's world.
Like, I thought that was self-defeatist to consider yourself that way. And I've always had great male colleagues and male mentors. You know,
I don't feel like men want to hold women back. But what I realized was if you don't change the
power systems that we operate under, women don't make progress, right? I had like a sort of aha
moment where I thought, I'm not doing great in a man's world.
I'm doing great making it run well for them.
I'm doing great propping it up.
And I think we have women internalize so much about how we expect to not do as well as men.
We expect to not make as much money as they do.
make as much money as they do. We think we sort of have to lower our voice to sound like them or,
you know, dress, you know, dress like them, that we just gotten too much into a rut of trying to follow their path. And that worked for a while and it is no longer working. Like we have stagnated.
I'm going to push back a little bit because this has been something, you know,
Lori, everyone's been pushing this since suffragette times. And you talk about that a
lot. And you talk about a lot of women, for example, that should be well known,
like Jeanette Rankin, like Ida Wells, and many others, Sojourner Truth, who do not get attention.
This has been a struggle since forever, not even well before that, you know, in Europe and in other countries forever.
What do you think has changed? Do you think something has changed? And what do you imagine
the barriers, at least in this country, are, especially politically? I think that for, you know,
women won suffrage 100 years ago next week, right? Okay, so that gave us sort of an entry into the
man's world, into politics, professional world. And for many
decades, we made really steady progress. And then about 30 years ago, we started to stagnate.
And I think it is because there are now, you know, it's not like there's a magic law to change,
although I think the ERA is a good idea because you should have that in the constitution.
But really, it's the things in our own heads. So there were things that for a while kind of women had as survival tactics. Like, for example, I am in competition with other women. If
that woman gets that job, that means I won't. If there's too many women at the meeting, it means
I'm not going to get in there. And if you think you are in competition with other women for a
limited amount of success that women can
attain, what you are saying is I do not belong here, right? You are saying I am a guest. And
that is what we have to banish. Because if you play into that, if you consider other women a
threat, if you think marginalized, if you think if you're a white woman like me, and you think
a black woman is even further marginalized than I am, so I'm not going to help her.
You are propping this all up.
I mean, I think this is why we're not making progress is because we're fighting each other for scraps.
And you have to, you know, what I have realized, and this is a change I've made in my own life in the last few years, like I have women's back and they have my back
in a way I have never experienced before. And, you know, when you fight to make sure that you're
paid what you're worth, that's going to help another woman down the line. And when you cut
yourself, when you undersell yourself, that is devaluing all women. And I think our fates are
more linked than we ever appreciated. And that is, it's like, you got to get at the root
of that, of feeling, of acting like you are a visitor, which is why the book is called
She Proclaims, because we have to say this stuff out loud. Otherwise, I think we're going to
continue to internalize it. And it's really, it's debilitating and your own actions. And if you
undercut yourself, you're doing that for all
women. I have a question for you, which is how do you think that the BLM movement has either
changed this discussion, potentially even pushed attention to other places? The reason I say this
is I'm part of various hiring endeavors. And, you know, a couple of months ago, every conversation was
about gender, was about gender parity. Now every conversation is, we need to have the right
diversity, but specifically African-American diversity. And how do you think that is now
moving this conversation in all sorts of directions?
I mean, it's a tough, super tough conversation to have. Right. And I have I've written about this specifically about a white woman in this moment.
And there's really interesting stuff from history on this, Andrew, like Frederick Douglass and Susan B.
and Susan B. Anthony got into a really heated debate at a convention in Albany about this question,
if white women deserve to get the vote
at the same time as black men.
And he said, when women, because they are women,
have their heads bashed in a sidewalk,
when women, because they are women,
are hung from a tree and lynched,
then their need will be as dire as mine.
But right now,
my need is more dire, right? And that doesn't mean that the women don't, white women don't also,
you know, shouldn't also like throw off the shackles of the patriarchy. But I accept as a
white woman, my lot in life is way better than any black American, right? I don't have the fears that
they have. I don't have this. I haven't had to live that experience. But what white women need to understand is these same power systems that keep people of color from
reaching their potential are the same power systems that keep you from reaching your potential. And
when you make the patriarchy a refuge, which white women have historically done, right? It's not
awesome for us, but it's better than being on the outs.
We're propping it up.
And so you have to like band together
in a way that you haven't before with people of color.
Well, one of the complaints is that,
and it's been since the feminist revolution
of this sort of not seeing that,
not seeing those connections as well as they should. So here we are in a
presidential race where it's highly likely a woman of color is going to be selected. And by the way,
when people talk about it, what's really interesting, everyone talks about the various
candidates, whether it's Kamala Harris or Stacey Abrams or Susan Rice or Barbara,
you know, all around the country., my feeling was like, look how many
amazing choices there are. Like, it's not like any of them is, are completely qualified. What has
happened here? And what do you make of, make of this selection? Is it, is it, and who do you think
is going to be selected? Just talk about the bigger landscape of this, having worked for Hillary
Clinton, but what, what is happening right now with this question?
I'm super optimistic about this, right? Because to your point, Carolee, there are so many amazing women that are actually qualified to be president of the United States. And if you go back to the
2008 race, Hillary Clinton had to work really hard to convince voters, polling shows this,
that she was able to be commander in chief. She eventually got there. Of course, she didn't become
the nominee, right? But we all accept that a woman can be president. And there are women whose, their ability to step into
that job is not being questioned. And there's like a super diverse group and that's incredible,
right? That bodes super well for the future. I'm going to say who I think is going to get it
because I'm not going to cop out, Kara. Okay, good. I was going to make you.
Because I would put you off. I know.
I've always thought it was going to be Kamala Harris, so I'll be consistent. And I think it's
going to be her. And why is that? Why do you think that? You know, I may be, look, we're all
personal of our own experience. And my experience working for women is, wow, they go through hell
fire, particularly when they run against Donald Trump. And so I think a woman who knows how to
land a punch can take a punch. She went through a pretty tough race. You know, she didn't win, obviously, but she held her
own and she's really great. You know, she is, she's good at defending herself and she's good
at taking, at taking Trump on and taking Pence on. The reason why Biden might not do it, I know
he wants to recreate that relationship he had with President
Obama, right, where they were like true partners and, you know, his like informal advisor. And
he knows Susan Rice better. So they're close. You know, I worked with them both in the White House
and I could see him going with Susan for that reason. I love Susan Rice. Oh my God, you must love her. I'm sure she's been on here and
she's just so awesome. But she hasn't had elected experience. Are voters going to be uneasy about
that? They might. So that's why I have thought Kamala is a better choice. And I think that
in this environment to pick a white woman, I feel like that's a mistake, even if, you know, black voters will tell you, like, we vote for white people all the time because for a long time that was the only choice we had.
But for black voters to hear every day, it's a press will remind them Joe Biden is taking you for granted because he didn't put a black one on the ticket.
That is really dangerous stuff.
You think Kamala would make a great president?
The reason I ask is because in an honest moment at a cocktail party, at basically any cocktail party around this country, I think right now, people think about this vice president potentially differently.
Obviously, we want Joe Biden to be alive, kicking and healthy throughout the next four years and for many years longer than that.
But people often say, you know,
you need this person's going to be a heartbeat away. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, you know, never
more true than with this pick. And I know that that's like certainly on Joe Biden's mind. Right.
The same thing that is as with McCain. And I think Harris meets, you know, she clearly meets that bar
and that's the most important decision of vice president a presidential candidate makes is like, can this person take over on day one?
And she's, you know, I think, you know, I think I know Joe Biden values electoral experience, right?
He has a lot of electoral experience.
There's something special about representing people, not just like worrying about the political outcomes of the decision you make, but understanding this is going to affect people.
about the political outcomes of the decision you make, but understanding this is going to affect people. And yes, the politics may say X, but I got to think about the person I am representing here.
And she's done that for, you know, millions and millions of Californians. And, you know,
she, I just think that if you, when you add it all up, that, that is why she makes the most sense as difficult as it will be
for her. I don't think, you know, a lot of people are like, Oh, this person, whoever this woman is,
she's definitely going to be the nominee in 2024. Wow. This person's in for, this woman is in for a
rough road and everything she does from the moment she's named will be viewed through the prism of
her ambition. And like, Oh, she's positioning herself to be,
you know, to outstage Joe,
or she's positioning herself to be president right away.
And she's going to bear that for, you know, four plus years.
And that kind of scrutiny is not awesome.
And there's a lot of other candidates.
That's an opportunity for a lot of Democrats to step in.
Totally the opportunity.
That's like tailor-made in my experience for somebody to come in from the outside and knock off this person that's been in the spotlight and under scrutiny for a long time.
I have two more questions and then maybe Andrew has a final one.
But one is what advice would you have for that running mate then, that presumably woman of color, uh, uh, who is going to be
selected as what would be your advice? I'd say not be quiet, but you know, I'd say, but what
would you say? Um, you're going to get attacked a ton. Uh, and that is part, that's the job,
right? Uh, and Trump will go down, Trump, uh, will go down rabbit holes with you. And that is,
um, and that will be to his.
You have to understand you've got to recognize when that is to his detriment.
And it's OK for you to pile on or when you are helping him by fighting back.
It's very hard to win a one on one personal attack game with Donald Trump because he will get nasty.
He's willing to get nastier than anybody else.
So she's going to have to like bear with that. And it's not going to be pleasant for her. I do
think there's an opportunity for Biden though, because, you know, what we learned on the Clinton
campaign was Hillary never responded to a personal attack from, uh, from Trump. We learned watching
the Republicans that that was a death spiral, But when he attacked somebody else, she would defend them. And that is a great moment for her, right? And so if Biden can come in and
defend his running mate against attacks from Trump and Pence, that could be a really good
moment for Joe Biden. And we all know he does righteous indignation really well. That's how
he started his campaign, fighting, you know, railing about the Charlottesville race riots.
And so it could be a moment for him too. That's the advice. And my last question is what if Trump wins?
What does this mean for women going forward? I think it's, you know, I, when Trump won in 16,
I was like, oh my God, what are women going to think? They're going to be, they're going to feel
so chastened. And we didn't, right. We were pissed and we felt empowered and looked like
there was something. Although he had very heavy support from white women, but go ahead. 53% of white women voted for
Donald Trump. It is a part of the long line of shame that, you know, uh, white women have to
appreciate. Um, so, uh, I think that, um, I don't like it would be, I think it's like a crushing
thing for America. Like this is not a drill. This is like the Republic's really at stake.
And but I do believe what I've seen, how I've seen women react the last few years.
I think that they will fight back harder. What the hell am I going to do?
What else are we going to do, Andrew?
OK, so here's here's my big question for you. Because Kara and Scott talk, obviously,
about big tech on Pivot all the time, and invariably somehow Elizabeth Warren's name
gets into that conversation, and now we're talking about taxes on billionaires and everything else,
what role would Elizabeth Warren have in a Biden administration in which you have more power in the administration or in the Senate?
She would probably have, you know, she's going to be a force either way. I mean, I don't, you know, because inside the administration, you probably are able to have more influence because you can get into the nitty gritty of governing.
And there are some really powerful levers there if you know how to use them.
In the Senate, she can be a force to stop something bad or like, you know, her vote will
matter a lot if she wants to like hold out and push Biden to the left, her vote will matter a lot.
But I still, and she can make herself a kingmaker, a dealmaker, right? There's appeal for her either
way. I do kind of think knowing what a sort of like nuts
and bolts methodical policy person she is, she would probably want to do that from within the
administration. I know. So Treasury Secretary? I don't think Treasury Secretary. I think,
you know, like she might be able to do that weirdly from commerce. There are underappreciated or a new position
as she created with CFPB. Or she could go back to that. But wherever she is, she's going to matter.
Okay. Well, this is very helpful. I really appreciate you coming on and thank you despite
all our technical difficulties. Jennifer Palmieri is the author of a new book.
She proclaims, oh, he's clapping for you.
She proclaims our declaration of independence from a man's world.
Thank you so much, Jennifer.
I really appreciate you all.
Thank you.
It's great to see you both.
All right, Jennifer, thank you so much.
And Andrew, one more quick break.
We'll be back for wins and fails.
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Andrew wins and fails. Now, I'd love to hear yours.
I think my fail was a story in the New York Times today about Talkspace,
an article that reported how employees' own therapy and mental health issues
have been used against them within the company.
It was a really disturbing article by Cashmere Hill,
and I forget the other reporter who was working on it,
but it was really quite a thing about these sort of mental health apps
that are meant to help us, whether they're meditation or whatever, being abused. So that was my fail.
Is it too political for me to say that my fail was Trump's executive order from Bedminster?
Go right ahead. Which one? Which one of the many?
All of the unconstitutional ones.
Yeah.
Which were all of them.
You want to stack rank them? You want to stack rank them for unconstitutionality?
I think, you know, trying to get rid of Social Security under the name of payroll taxes is
sort of a unique approach to life.
Yeah, OK.
That's at the top of my list at the moment.
All right.
And where do you think that zeroes out?
It doesn't happen?
Or is it just what?
He's just sort of flailing around.
But let me say, let me say, and I'm sure we'll get I'll get flame for this. There's some genius to this. There is some it's there was some genius to it in that for those who are not paying attention, there's something sort of clever about it because he's going to force the Democrats to potentially either to come to the table or to look bad or something. Really?
Because I do.
I think that there are people out there that look at this and think to themselves that
he's trying to do something that the Democrats are not.
Obviously, that's not the case and it's not true.
But there was something clever about it, though I find it disgusting.
I find it disgusting.
All right.
Oh, wow.
Oh, wow.
That's not very Canadian of you.
Listen to me. I find it disgusting. All right. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. That's not very Canadian of you. Listen to me.
I'm just saying.
Ashley Parker wrote a piece about how he's just flailing and yelling and tweeting and
making noise and nobody's paying attention.
Nobody is.
You know, remember how everybody went crazy every time he tweeted?
Nobody's doing that anymore.
I think this is just so much noise.
No, we're over it.
We're over it.
But if you're watching Fox News, you're not over it yet.
Well, that's another thing.
You're right.
You're right.
You're right.
That's fair.
But I still think people find him confusing now.
My mom, who watches Fox News all the time, as you know, who is, of course, my entire
non-anecdotal study group here.
But the fact that she's like, what is he talking about?
She's sort of confused by all of it.
And of course, all she hears is Democrats suck.
That's really what the message that gets through.
But I think that I think there's too much.
I was just thinking the other day, there's too much Trump, too much Trump, just too much
of him.
He needs to go in the basement with maybe Vice President Biden.
But there's a lot of Trump, and I think he's going to get us tired of him.
All right.
So win.
What's your win?
OK, so my big win, we will not know whether he's a winner or not, of him. All right. So win. What's your win? Okay.
So my big win, we will not know whether he's a winner or not, but I'm putting him in the
winner category.
We'll do the show again in five years to find out.
Barry Diller today, IAC, buying 12% of MGM Resorts.
I don't know if you saw him do this today.
No, I don't.
Fascinating decision.
Tell me more. Barry buys 12% of MGM Resorts today
with the hope of helping them become an online gambling platform around the world. He's buying
it at basically 50% off from pre-COVID days. And he makes the argument that either we'll do the
digital piece and take over the online gambling world. And even if we don't, we'll still win
because his time horizon is going to be longer
than everybody else's.
And he imagines Vegas way back.
Speaking of Fannie, oh, wow.
I thought that was unique.
I thought it was unique for IAC to buy into a,
usually they're all digital.
This is a digital play on top of a bricks and mortar operation.
That's fascinating.
He's always been ahead.
He doesn't always take advantage of being ahead.
He was early to Home Shopping Network.
He was early to online stuff.
He doesn't always take the most advantage,
but he's certainly in place,
and that's an interesting move.
That is a really,
and from him especially,
he knows that world.
And he gets,
I think the issues online gambling
and legality and all the rules,
that's much more difficult.
And by the way,
some things like stockbroke stuff like Robinhood is online gambling.
That's what it's become, 100%.
Yeah, you know, in that way.
But gambling, gambling is another thing.
That's a good win.
I like that win.
That's a really good win.
I would give a win to Sheldon Adelson getting yelled at by President Trump.
So I guess I have to give to President Trump.
I just like when he yells at people who've given him $60 million. I think that's kind of fantastic.
It all leads back to Vegas.
Vegas, maybe. That's what made me think of Vegas. Actually, I do think what Bill Gates is doing
around this vaccine, especially in the face of so many memes about him being sort of the George
Soros of the vaccine world,
at least sort of negative conspiracy theories. What are we going to do about this, by the way,
Karen? Nothing. No, no. When I say no, but I'll tell you something. I have watched George Soros,
who got, you know, got involved, you know, all these conspiracies came out. And I think his reputation around the world has never been, he's never been able to fully recover from it. And I
think that there's a tipping point going on here with Bill. And I worry about it because I actually have a huge
amount of admiration for Bill Gates and what he's done, especially in these last 20 years and with
COVID and everything else. I mean, by the way, before 20 years ago, creating Microsoft, of
course, but I wonder whether, you know, what these conspiracy theories, they're not real, but because it feels so real and so visceral all the time that I wonder whether it permeates generations of people's brains.
I don't know.
I just I feel like a lot more people are getting attacked in this way.
They're by QAnon or these memes or memes that are generated by China or Russia or whoever at the time.
I think in this case, it's not just it's one, the anti-vaxxers, but they're closely linked. They're all closely
linked with each other in a way. I think this has been around forever, this kind of thing.
And whether it was the elders of Zion or whatever, there's always been this happening in this country.
I just think it's gotten amplified and weaponized with these tools.
But Bill Gates certainly does not deserve the kind of attacks he's getting in the conspiracy area.
And what he's doing is I do think the foundation is doing a lot to distribute the COVID vaccine.
But I do think a lot of people won't take.
There's a whole bunch of anti-vaxxers.
People aren't going to take it.
I think it's going to be a big issue.
As Scott Galloway says, Darwin rules.
That's how I look at it.
Anyway, Andrew, this is so great.
Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure.
You know Scott is listening wherever he is.
What should we say about him?
We should, I just want to thank Scott.
I love Scott and the opportunity to sit in for him
has been a privilege.
Yeah, thank you so much.
Your hair is so much better.
Andrew, what kind of question are you looking for
from a listener this week? Stephanie Rule asked one last thing. What topic would you be interested in hearing about and answering a question about?
I want to know whether people actually feel comfortable going back to work. And actually, I'm going to make it more difficult. I want people, I want to know whether people actually like working from home better.
Good question. That's an excellent question. That's what I want. I want to talk to people who are like, you know what, this whole thing
is going to be, you know, I want it to be different. I like this better.
All right. Okay. Or not. Or they hate it. Or they hate it.
Why not? Why not? Anyway, email us at pivot at voxmedia.com to be featured on the show. And
please answer Andrew's plaintive question. Also, don't forget, if you can't get enough Pivot, we're going to do a live stream events for the month of August. It's
called Pivot Schooled from New York Magazine and Vox Media Podcast Network. We've done one
and we've had thousands of people come and they're really great. This week, we have another one on
Wednesday. You can get tickets at pivotschooled.com. There's also a link in our show notes.
Today's show was produced by Rebecca Sinanis. Fernando Finete engineered
this episode. Eric Anderson is Pivot's executive producer. Make sure you subscribe to the show on
Apple Podcasts, or if you're an Android user, check us out on Spotify and frankly, wherever
you listen to podcasts. If you liked our show, please recommend it to a friend. Thanks again
to Andrew Ross Sorkin for co-hosting this week. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York
Magazine and Vox Media. We'll be back later this week with Andrew for another breakdown of all things tech
and business. Support for this show is brought to you by Nissan Kicks. It's never too late to
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